


Penance

by SaraJaye



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Field Trips with Zuko, Gen, Humor, Male-Female Friendship, Possible Scenario, Snark, Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-06
Updated: 2014-02-06
Packaged: 2018-01-11 10:39:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1172069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaraJaye/pseuds/SaraJaye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He'd thought once Katara trusted him, things would get easier. He was wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Penance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Clocketpatch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clocketpatch/gifts).



He'd thought once Katara forgave him it would be over. She'd been the hardest to convince and befriend, it had taken her almost doing something she would have regretted to make her realize he was no longer her enemy.

But compared to Toph, Katara had been easy. Toph had _claimed_ she was okay with him being one of the gang, but clearly she'd lied. Or maybe her idea of "forgive" was different from everyone else's.

"What's going on?" he demanded as soon as he was able to catch her alone. "You said you forgave me! Suddenly you're being a total ice queen and making faces at me!" Toph didn't even bother to turn around as she smashed another rock cleanly in half.

"I said I _trust_ you," she said. "That's different. Trust means I know you won't get us killed, forgiveness means you're off the hook for screwing up."

"What?" Okay, so maybe he should have figured that one out. "But I didn't...oh, right, you mean-"

" _You burned my feet._ " She turned around. "You owe me big for that, buster. My feet are my eyes! How would _you_ like it if someone burned your-" She cut herself off. "Oh, right. Sorry. I mean, I can't see it, but-"

"Never mind that." Zuko touched a hand to his scar for a moment. Her mistake didn't bother him as much as it would have a long time ago. "Okay, so I hurt your feet and you're still mad. What can I do to make it up to you?"

She grinned, easily grabbing hold of his arm for someone who couldn't even see him standing there.

"A field trip. Everyone else got to go on a life-changing field trip with you, now it's my turn. And it better be epic, and we better learn something new!" Zuko blanched.

"But...where would we _go?_ Aang needed my help with Firebending, I had to help Sokka bust his dad out, Katara needed to confront her mother's killer..."

"My parents." Her face grew serious. "We'll take Appa, fly to the Earth Kingdom for a day and I'll talk to them. Katara helped me write a letter for them a while ago, but..."

"The _Earth Kingdom?!_ " Zuko shook his head. "We don't have time for that. Aang still needs to fight the Fire Lord, and..." He paused. It had to happen before the comet came, but he'd rather everyone was there when he broke the news. "I'm sorry about your parents, but that's just not gonna work."

"Oh." She shrugged. "Then take me to some super-secret island in the Fire Nation so I can at least talk about them! And you can talk about your bad childhood! We can bond!" Zuko bristled a little.

"Look-"

"You _owe me._ "

He sighed. He wasn't going to get out of this one. Katara may have held a grudge tighter than anything, but Toph was persistent and could make his life miserable for days if she wanted to.

"All right. Get up early tomorrow, I'll ask Aang if we can borrow Appa again."

"Great!" She hugged his arm, then went back to smashing rocks gleefully. Zuko sighed, quietly heading back to camp to talk to Aang. Hopefully he wouldn't mind loaning out Appa for another day.

_At least Toph doesn't want to get revenge on someone._


End file.
